The Night Before
by HorcruxCupcake
Summary: Post ep S29E29 Zax Oneshot. Following the events of what happened in the episode, starts with the night before then continues on the day of the episode at the end of it.


**A/N: It took me ages to understand what Zoe had done - I had to watch it 3 times but I think I got there in the end ;) haha can't believe what she did and when Max said at the beginning "Oh this is going to be fun" I was sat there nodding with him - so funny. Poor Robyn though, and I actually thought Lofty liked her, I thought Max was a bit slow off the mark though guessing who Lofty was talking about. Nice to see Cal and Ethan seem to make amends. I thought it was sweet at the beginning when the explosion took place and Cal protected Ethan - covering him as he went down, then Ethan kind of confirmed the brotherly love thing at the end :) Hope you enjoy x**

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…and while you're at it you could show us all a little bit more respect!"

"Ok ok Zoe calm down" Max said grabbing Zoe's shoulders and pulling her away from Guy Self who she was currently yelling at about the state of the ED and his obvious lack of care for it. Everyone in the ED was staring, including the patients scattered about the chairs and the cubicles, in order to watch the scene unfold in front of them. Zoe was clearly intoxicated to put it lightly and poor Guy was absolutely speechless having never quite seen Zoe in such a state of distress.

"Get off me!" Zoe flung Max off her and continued to yell at Guy until Max steadied himself and pulled her away. Leading her out of the ED, despite her protests and leaving everyone astounded with a traumatised Guy Self.

"What do you think you're doing, I was in the middle of something? Do you know how unprofessional that looked, you pulling me away?" Zoe asked, still at the top of her voice as Max led her towards her car.

"Well somebody had to be the grownup" he muttered climbing into the driver seat of Zoe's car "Now how do you do this?" he pondered staring at the clutch.

"Please tell me you can drive."

"I had a few lessons"

"A few?"

"Well 1, kept stalling it and never got the car started. Never went back to it after that."

"Come here let me drive" Zoe said starting to clamber out.

"Nooo no way" Max said stopping her from standing up "I might have only had one lesson but I think I'm still a better driver than you right now"

"I'm a good driver" she giggled

"Not right now you're not" Max sighed, this was going to be an interesting ride.

"I can't believe I argued with Guy Self in front of the whole department, while I was drunk" said Zoe head in her hands.

"Well you argue with Guy Self every day, everyone here has probably seen you do more embarrassing things – I know I have, and don't even get me started on people seeing you drunk" replied Dylan sorting through some patient notes.

"In here though! I must have gone to the pub then come back in here for some reason and seen him. Oh I can't believe it, how embarrassing."

"It was funny though" said Tess

"At least I didn't throw up on his shoes"

"Max might have just been making you feel better about yourself."

"What? So I did throw up on him!" Zoe exclaimed. Tess just smirked and walked away and Dylan followed without saying anything "Great" mumbled Zoe, resting her head on her arms on the table.

"Head still hurt then?" asked Max coming up to her

"What do you think?

Max laughed "I could kiss it better" he whispered kissing her on the top of her head.

"Didn't work" assessed Zoe

"Aah well worth a try. You never know, I might've had magic powers." He saw Lofty walking round the corner and shouted to him "Lofty!"

"Ow Max did you really have to shout that loud" Zoe protested

"Sorry, now Lofty have you put my sister in her place yet"

"What?"

"Advice on how to tell a girl you don't like her when she's clearly into you, I know you were talking about Robyn"

"No I wasn't I…"

Max raised his eyebrows "Ok mate look" Lofty continued "I wasn't trying to be offensive of anything, and I didn't mean to be cruel to her."

"Good because I'd personally rip you balls off. After my sister has finished with them of course."

"Max" Zoe said reprimanded shaking her head repulsed.

Lofty stood there his mouth gaping for a few seconds before coming to his senses and turning to Zoe "You're actually going out with him?"

"Don't remind me" Zoe said rubbing her face and standing up "Now if you'll excuse me I have patients to attend to before I'm no longer going out with Max because he's said something else that should never be repeated."

She turned to walk away but heard Lofty continuing with the conversation "Anyway the being more like Dylan thing didn't go to plan." He said

"Ok the patients can wait" Zoe walked back "What being more like Dylan thing?"

"Max said the way to turn down a girl was to be well basically mean like Dylan showing no emotion or empathy."

"Did he now?" Zoe pursed her lips at Max and looked away sheepishly "Right firstly Lofty, you don't turn a girl down nicely by being mean, which I thought would be self-explanatory."

"Well when you put it like that…"

"Secondly" she spoke over him "Robyn actually cares about you so just talk to her honestly and finally, and this is by far the most important: never take advice from Max."

"My advice is good advice… well when I'm serious about it."

"What is it with you and Dylan?" Zoe said "Anyone would think you were jealous of him."

"Jealous of the fact he lives with my girlfriend and she is constantly defending him, no why would I be jealous of that?"

"I'll take that as my queue to leave" Lofty said edging away.

"Is that really what this is about? You never seemed to have a problem with us living together before, and he is just a friend."

"No I don't, I just don't like him. He's kind of, creepy"

"Well yeah but that's Dylan for you"

"See there you go again, defending him"

"I'm not defending him. All I'm saying is that Dylan has always been like that, I've just known him long enough to get used to it."

"Well I'm really not used to it yet and I'm not holding my breath."

Zoe sighed letting the matter go "I really need a drink"

"After last night, I don't think you should ever touch alcohol again"

"And we both know that isn't going to happen so I might as well start breaking it now" she said picking up her coat and bag.

Max smiled putting his arm around her shoulders and joined her in walking to the pub across the road.

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**A/N: Thanks for reading! :)**


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